Although my gut reaction is to flame the Reader’s legal dept into vapor, would any of the powers that be care to give those of us who make this endeavor possible by our patronage any sort of explanation of the reason why the Teeming Millions Home Page had to be shut down?
Mind you, I don’t truly expect to get a clear explanation, but even politically correct legalese might stop some of us from brutalizing our SD voodoo dolls. I’d prefer to go back to getting pissed just at trolls.
I was instructed to remove all mention/use of the Straight Dope name from the TM homepage, or face legal action. The TM homepage is between 400 and 500 pages all told and it will take me some time to go through and expunge the references, and so to protect myself from lawsuit, I took down the page until I can get that done.
Needless to say, the new TM homepage will not officially be a Straight Dope fan page anymore.
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
WHAT?!? No way!! But I just got here!!
Opal, I have been exploring that site in stages… for weeks!
What?!? You are joking, right?
Man, that just sucks. 
'Smeggy
The déjà just keeps on vu-ing.
Wow… sounds just like FOX and their persecution of X-Files and Simpsons websites. Actually, it sounds worse than that. There’s a difference between a site containing a bunch of graphics and .wav files taken from a show and a site saying “These are people who enjoy The Straight Dope.”
Why the threats? Was Opal selling bootleg SD t-shirts? Was she stealing copyrighted works and passing them off as her own on the site? Was she doing anything that made the SD look bad or was costing them money? Not as far as I can see. Rather, it seems the Reader is getting pissy that someone else might be nibbling at their little empire and, God forbid, be entertaining people with the Straight Dope name.
For a site that Cecil himself seems to have advocated and for a site mentioned on the SD main page, the actions of the Reader are pathetic.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
Here’s this lawyer’s two cents worth:
My bet is that the Chicago Reader’s (a registered trademark of Fukinjerkoffco) lawyers were concerned that the Reader was aware that a website was using its trademark and it did not take action to stop the unauthorized use. A court could interpret this as a waiver of the Reader’s right to enforce its trademark.
Of course, there is a much simpler and classier solution to this perceived problem. The Reader could simply grant OpalCat a limited license to use the trademark for a nominal fee (say $1.00). OpalCat could then continue her website supporting the SDMB. This would provide free publicity for the Reader’s product and would not further alienate the SDMB’s loyal denizens.
In my experience (which is reasonably extensive), when a lawyer acts like a hard-assed jerk there are two possible explanations: a) the lawyer has a lousy case or b) the client has a piss poor lawyer.
Since it is difficult for me to imagine how the Reader, the SDMB or Cecil were being harmed by the continued existence of OpalCat’s page, my guess is that “b” applies to this situation.
Of course, I don’t know all the fact of this particular situation. I can only make comments based upon the limited information I’ve received.
But the totality of circumstances (especially considering recent experience herein) indicates to me that the adminstration of the Reader and/or the SDMB and/or its attorneys operate at a significantly lower intellectual level than many of the posters on this board.
This may just be the last straw.
Plunging like stones from a slingshot on Mars.
Just to clarify, by “SD main page” I meant the site of http://www.straightdope.com and not the index.html page. Rather, OpalCat’s page is mentioned in the FAQ and given kudos (not to mention a statement that it is not a part of the offical SD site).
Just didn’t want my lack of clarity coming back to me.
By advocated by Cecil, I of course meant the quote that was on the TM main page; something along the lines of “‘The Teeming Millions page kicks butt and Lord knows there’s a lot of butts out there that need it.’ – Cecil Adams”
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
I especially like how Ed merely had a problem with Opal’s Str8dope e-mail offering, according to his explaination, but the letter explicitely states that all references have to be removed from the site.
Is this a case of a lawyer going above and beyond Ed’s own wishes? I could see that heppening…
Or is this a case of the left hand here not knowing what the right hand is doing? From the mixed postings of moderators in Melingate and the C#3 fiasco, I would say there is certainly evidence that this happened before.
And if all holds true to form, there will be much public speculation for a while, some posts from the powers that be that contradict other such ostings, before Ed finlly takes a stand and makes things clear, while eyebrows remain cocked because of the schizm.
Opal: You worked very hard with your site. If I were you, I would simply delete it all and forget about it. It’s not worth it…
Yer pal,
Satan
It’s tempting, Satan. However, I’m the sort of person who has trouble throwing away used Kleenex, let alone 400+ pages of hard work. Besides, there are people who appreciate the site… it was never meant for Ed or the editors, it was meant for the little people 
And so, when I get time, I’ll plod through the thing and remove all the #&$# references and put the site back up. Quite a nuisance though, and I manage the content on at least 4 other sites as a hobby (two of which are bigger than the TMHP), and many more on a professional level… so it might take a while before I have the time.
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Maybe that could be a job for your volunteers? I’d volunteer, but I’m just learning, and I’d be afraid of fucking something up.
The fact that the original concern was an email service is exactly why there isn’t a simple solution. If the Str8dpe email service was running, you could get SPAM from an address with a variant of the Straight Dope, a copyrighted name, in the return address. No simple disclaimer, (This is not authorized by the Chicago Reader, blah,blah) would be effective unless Opal could convince her customers to attach it to every mail they send.
The order to remove everything is probably the fault of an overzealous legal department. Of course, since the page went down after business hours on a Friday, we may not find out for a while.
–John
Hey Opal…I’m with DB. I know HTML, and if you want some help, let me know. I know what a bitch it can be to change the same damn thing 400+ times…I do it at work every damn month.
Lord knows Opal and I have had disagreements on the board here; however, I personally think the TMHP was a work of art…good art, at that!
This, on the face of it, sucks BIG TIME! It borders on the ridiculous. Official explanations (forth)coming, I’m sure… If I understand correctly, the placement of a disclaimer would not be enough?? Could someone versed in legal matters please elaborate on this?
P.S.: Opal, I’d offer to help with the tediousness but, believe me, it’s better for everybody that I abstain! 
Omni-not, there is an official explanation in the thread about this in MPSIMS, “WHOA! TMHP.”
-John
Miskch’s Law- It’s better to have a horrible ending than horrors without end.
If I had access to a copy of the HTML, I’d offer to do it. It would take about a minute and a half, tops, with any marginally decent text editor (say, GNU emacs).
peas on earth
Thanks John. Just noticed and read it!
Well the only graphic that I KNOW of that had it was the one that said “#straightdope IRC chat” … because the name of the chat room is #straightdope…
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
Ok, your call. The offer’s open - just lemme know if you change your mind. Even if they are in scripts or whatever else, I can probably do the whole shootin’ match in a few minutes. I make changes to a source base of 7 million lines of C code on a routine basis so I’m pretty good at it 
| And FWIW, I empathise with ya - I’d be pretty PO’ed about the whole thing if I was in your shoes. The phrase “well, fuck it then” comes to mind. :- |
|---|
peas on earth
More WAGing:
Maybe the Chicago Reader is planning on expanding its SD webpage (or upping the advertising). If there is another more popular SD web site, then the CR looses advertising revenue.
Of course, as mentioned, there are ways around this: A licensing deal (as already mentioned) could allow OpalCat to share any revenue from her site with the CR.
OTOH, it may be more of a CYA tactic. If there’s a falling out between the SD and OpalCat, the CR doesn’t want the largest and most popular SD web site to suddenly become the largest anti-SD web site.
But, we’ll see…
Yue Han wrote:
I don’t believe it’s possible to copyright a name. However, it is possible to trademark a name.
I believe it is trademark infringement, not copyright infringement, that is being alleged in this case. Not that that makes much of a difference.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.